Christmas gingerbread - a delicious symbol of Christmas

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The most famous symbols of Christmas are undoubtedly the ornate Christmas tree and Santa Claus. Not far from them, New Year's gingerbread has lagged behind, with an amazing sweet aroma that gets thanks to cinnamon and ginger. Such a smell enhances the festive mood, evokes pleasant associations in a person. Already in November, New Year's gingerbreads are on sale - sweet New Year's gifts - in the form of Christmas tree decorations, cute little people, hearts. If desired, everyone can prepare such a Christmas symbol on their own in their own kitchen.

Ginger is an amazing spice

Ginger is one of the most famous and widespread spices around the world. Ginger root is used to make slimming drinks and has long been used to treat colds, loss of energy, frigidity and nausea. It is believed that this root prevents the development of tumors. Japanese sushi and rolls are served with pickled ginger. This spice is used in rice dishes, stewing meat and pumpkin soup. Confectioners also love ginger and add it to the dough.

The history of fragrant gingerbread

The products are called "gingerbread" because a large number of different spices are added to them during cooking. The first such supplement was bee honey. The cakes with its addition were sweetish in taste and could be stored for a very long time, since honey disinfects products. Later, spices began to be added to the honey dough: ginger, cinnamon, cloves. Each nation had its own spicy dough recipe. Gingerbread was invented in the UK. More precisely, the first gingerbread with the addition of hot ginger was made in a British town called Drayton Maquette. Such gingerbread cookies became popular, and already at the beginning of the 18th century they began to be prepared throughout Europe.

Amazing gingerbread cookies

Christmas gingerbread cookies are fragile and thin. During baking, the dough retains its shape well and practically does not increase, and therefore they are often used to create a variety of figures, for example, to decorate a festive tree. The cookies themselves turn out to be quite beautiful, but colored glaze helps to make them more attractive and tasty.

A very famous gingerbread decoration is gingerbread houses. You can bake such a house with your own hands or purchase already prepared blanks, which you just need to fold at home into a fabulous sweet house. Often people are baked from ginger dough for Christmas, and they are decorated with colored icing, chocolate and nuts. When decorating such little people, most attention is paid to its buttons.

The secret to making gingerbread dough

In addition to ginger, you will need to add to the dough for Christmas gingerbread: nutmeg, cinnamon, coriander, cloves, allspice, cardamom. It is allowed to introduce orange peel and cocoa into the dough. Over the years, a huge number of recipes for gingerbread dough with ginger have been invented. Choosing a recipe follows from personal preference, as well as depending on the goals. For example, for a gingerbread house, it is better to take a recipe that makes thick gingerbread.

Ready-made gingerbread cookies have a sweet smell that comes from natural honey. It is not necessary to add sugar to the dough. The introduction of soda as a baking powder is allowed, but more often several spoons of strong alcohol with a pleasant aroma are used. Professional pastry chefs advise choosing flour of the first or even second grade for such baking, since such products are best obtained from it. The finished dough should be not too sticky and plastic enough. It remains to roll it out, shape it and bake it in the oven for several minutes. After that, you can start decorating fragrant houses and figurines.